Popo's Worries: A short Ice Climbers story
by Wildwulf
Summary: In the home village of the Ice Climbers, Popo has been a bit uneasy about what's happened recently and worries for Nana, but she comes along, which prompts him a difficult matter to talk about to his closest companion for years...


Note: This is a very short story I wrote about the Ice Climbers, and this is my first time writing about them, feeling they are rather fun characters I wanted to give some more depth to. I hope you'll enjoy it despite it's rather short feel.

It was a average climate-day at one of the various small village situated in Iceglacy Fields, a snow-filled country where despite usually warm enough climates to grow crops at, the environment was always covered with snow, and was surrounded by various slippy peaks. Just out of range from the town where the few townsfolk were hard at work managing the village and others busy trying to grow crops, one small boy was walking with his snowboots on through a thick layer of snow, the only sounds he could hear were his own crunching footsteps through the snow flattened under his feet, and was apparently in deep thought.

The apparent boy was in actuallity about 18 years old, despite his small state. It was a rather unique trait for the people who lived in the town to be born relatively small, and remain fairly small when they reach adulthood compared to other humans in their world. It's so deceiving, people could mistake them for young children when they are in fact in their late teens. The young man's name was Popo, a fellow who liked to dress in blue, it being his favourite color. His attire even now consisted of merely a blue warm coat and dark blue trousers to walk through the snow with.

'It's been a good while, but I wonder if we can continue to do these kind of dangerous undertakings together...we both knew what we faced, and we came through it, but despite all that, I still worry for her.' He spoke to himself a bit loudly.

Though he could then hear footsteps approaching at a fast rate, meaning the person was running. Turning his head around, he was happy to see who it was.

'Hey, Popo!' A 17-year old girl clad in a pink coat and color scheme approached him, happy to see him. Popo was happy to see his close companion, and greeted back with a smile. 'Hi there, Nana!' Though as Nana approached him, she looked at him with a bit of a worried expression.

'I've been looking for you for awhile the past 10 minutes.' Nana explained looking at Popo who listened to her. 'I went to your home but your parents say you just went out for a walk, and I thought you would be out here.'

Popo sighed a bit in response, but then looked at Nana with a worried expression. 'Well, Nana...do you remember back when we climbed the high mountains around the country a few months ago?'

Nana immediatly knew what he was talking about. 'Yes, I do remember that. The village was in dire need of new rop supplies which ran out due to a harsh snowstorm, and nobody dared to scale the mountains, on which those rare vegetabbles grew, except for us two. We both shared the determination to save our village, and we both set out to accomplish that goal, and we succeeded in it!'

'Yeah, that sure was dangerous, but we managed to get enough crops for the people at our home.' Popo commented on it with a smile, but he then continued on. 'Hmm, but...do you still sometimes think on what happened when we were transported to that odd universal fighting event twice by some odd giant white hand who called itself the 'Master hand?' Popo questioned his friend.

'Oh yeah, that. It was rough indeed. We had barely any fighting experience, yet that creature claimed we possesed 'worthy powers', as he put it.' Nana shaked his head thinking back on what that hand said to them.

They were used to the cold climate and the cold winds with what little oxygen there was on top of the mountains they climbed, but the fights they faced in the many weird universes they visited twice was one of the most dangerous situations they ever found themselves in.

'We didn't manage to win the first fighting tournament, but we did our best, and that's all we cared about, right, Popo?' Nana questioned with a smile.

'Yeah, I didn't have any problems with it either.' Popo first stated before he moved on. 'But the next time we were transported to that place for another tournament, things were quite a big mess... Those weird purple seeds were all over the place, and it was a real nightmare fighting them off.' After he finished his first sentence, he then looked down on the ground with a bit of a sad face. Nana noticed something did bug him, but she remained silent until he finished what he wanted to talk about.

'I...I really care for you alot, and that's what kept me going. I didn't care for the large amounts of enemies we faced, and I was in all honesty scared stiff at times, fighting alongside you is what drove my motivation.' Popo admitted. 'But...I don't think if it's safe for the both of us if we continue to keep doing this, as I really don't want to put you in harm's way.'

Nana couldn't believe what she just heard, and lifted up Popo's head with her hand gently, and spoke to him with a confident tone. 'Hey, that isn't the Popo I've got to know over the years. Listen, when did we meet each other?'

'Back during our first school session in the village about 5 years ago.' Popo replied, the answer being clear to him as if it occured yesterday,

'That's right, and we grew fond of each other. We liked to wear similar outfits, and almost did anything together, from making projects to having fun out in the snow. We even shared the passion of scaling mountains, which we put to our best back awhile ago.'

Popo was somewhat more relieved when he heard those words. 'Yeah, we worked together perfectly for that.'

'Indeed, and I don't care where we get ourselves in, wether it was climbing mountains avoiding those annoying condors, or fighting our way through that freaky army or against strangers from another world, I'm always glad to do it with you, and I admire you for never backing off on it all, and I never did either!'

Popo suddenly moved his arms slowly in a holding position on Nana's shoulders, feeling more happier from her short speech. 'And I admire you for never giving up on me either. I've just been worrying a tad too much these past few days, and didn't knew how to talk about it properly.' Popo admitted.

'Then just talk with me about it. We're always there for each other in times of joy and worries, and I'll always do my best to cheer you up!' Nana wrapped her arms around Popo's back.

'I will, and thanks for all that you've done for me, Na!' Popo smiled before he blushed a bit, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. He knew her like she was a sibling to him, but he always felt shy about kissing her, which he rarely did to her.

Nana also blushed, and kissed him back on the lips with her eyelids closed. 'And thank you for always being such a good friend, I couldn't wish for a better person than you to be with.' She whispered back to him.

Popo tried to move the subject on, feeling now in much higher spirits. 'What do you say we'll go and take a nice short walk around the area? I bet there's some nice aurora field coming up soon for a nice viewpoint!'

'Sure!' Nana smiled as the two then walked on in the distance of the fields, holding hands smiling as the sun shined over the snow-filled field...

The end.


End file.
